In March of 2006 Ray and I moved to Oakland California from Vacaville. We had only lived in Vacaville for 3 months before we realized the commute was killing us. I would drop him off at work, drive back home and then drive back to the bay area and pick him up, a total of a 4 hour commute, without traffic each day. Anyhow, while looking for a place to live in the bay area we stumbled upon this building. It was an old warehouse that use to be a French Fry Factory. I would of never, ever, ever, even considered living in here, but Ray, well, lets just say he has more vision than I most do. At first I thought it was asinine, I mean have you guys seen the photo above? But I have always been one to just go with the flow, and Ray is what I like to call a hopeless visionary.

But you got to admit, it totally has potential. Even I could admit that. But again, did you see the photo above? It was taken through a hole in the front door. The building was 8000 sq ft. Uh, no that’s not a misprint, there was not an extra 0 put in by accident. Yes, we lived, worked, renovated, bled, sweat, cried and even threw a few parties in an 8000 sq ft building for an entire year. Crazy kids, I’m sure that’s what everyone was thinking.

The pile of trash we had hauled away almost reached the second floor.

It even had two walk in refrigerators, one of which I was planning on turning into my walk in closet.

We flew dad down because there was no way we could of done all this work without him.

We put a lot of work into this building. In the beginning it was scary, but I got over it and soon it was as though the Universe had answered our dreams, but with a little sacrifice and hard work on our part. Ray had always dreamed of renting out a huge warehouse that had a urinal from a rich old man that gave him a super cheap deal and turning it into his modern urban living dream. Yes, our warehouse even had a urinal. And I had always wanted to have my own massage business, with 4 rooms, one for myself and the other 3 I would hire or rent out to other massage therapist. The front of the building on the second floor had 4 rooms. The more we thought about it the more uncanny and perfect it seemed.

But soon, life just took a toll. Ray detested work and the more he saw his boss the more he loathed him. I was getting burnt out on massage. What once was filled with passion and energy fizzled and soon I felt like a well paid slave. Ray and I decided to call it quits and tackle yet another dream of mine, to live in Hawaii. Somehow, this dream seemed so much less painful and stressful. We had a 3 year lease so we took on the role as property managers and sublet the building for the remainder 2 years of our lease and for over twice what we paid, split the rent with Mel, the nice old man Ray dreamt to life, every month and started a new chapter of our lives in Oahu Hawaii.

Hawaii was a totally awesome experience. Every month we used the money we made from the building to pay off the debt we put into it. I’d like to say it was easy but it wasn’t. I can say it was a huge learning experience. This last trip to California was to find a way to come to an agreement with Kevin, the man we rented the building out to. He ended up subletting the building to Raphael, a total pathetic douche bag that couldn’t pay rent on time to save his life and couldn’t move out when asked to leave. But our main concern for coming out to Cali was to make sure we uphold our contract with Mel and leave on good terms with him. When we got to the building it was in shambles. All the hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and money we put into it seemed wasted. Did I mentioned that Raphael had secretly turned the building into an illegal club/bar he called the Radiance Factory. Just a word of advice for Raphael, it’s not smart to advertise an illegal club. Fucking retard.

Here’s a before us and after us photo.

And after then after we did more work and started to settled in. In the very back behind the glass windows is where where the 4 massage rooms laid.

From the opposite direction. Ray loved his pool table.

A closer look further back. To the left was our bed room, middle was Ray’s desk and to the far right was our closet.

A better view of our closet. I had a lot more shoes back then.

Our living room in it’s earlier stage.

The kitchen area and dining area. Ray and I built that wobbly table one night when we had nothing better to do. He swears one day he’ll redeem himself.

Here’s what the building looked like on our last visit.

Looks like they built a kitchen room.

We turned this room into my workout/yoga room.

This is what it looks like by the time we were done with it.

And this is how it looks now.

This was suppose to eventually be a massage room #4, but in the mean time we just made it a guest room and it was also Chris Miller’s room when he stayed with us.

And this is how it looks now.

A before and after of Massage Room #3.

Same room, present day.

Before and after of Massage Room #2.

Massage Room #2 today.

My Massage Room before.

My beautiful massage room after. I actually worked countless hours in this room. It was the perfect massage room.

And this is how it looks like now.

A few before and afters of the lobby we fixed up. We were planning on getting more furniture to fill it up but I think we did a pretty spectacular job.

And here it is today. Animals.

We took back our blinds.

A before and after of the mens restroom. Behind the wall next to the sink was where the men’s urinal was. I forgot to take an aftermath photo but it’s probably for the best because it was bad.

They badly built what looks like lounge rooms downstairs. But the whole are downstairs area was pretty muck a junk yard.

Oh, our mistletoe was still hanging up. I bet it launched a lot of kisses.

I’ll never forget the day we lifted the super industrial air condition unit up on the rooftop. It was insanely crazy and scary. We had to set it on top of a shit ton of pallets in order for Ray and his dad to reach it. Ray had originally wanted to tie the heavy unit to a rope and pull it up. That made no fucking sense to me so I walked over to the Chinese produce factory and asked if they would help us out with their fork lift. It took some per swaying but my charm won in the end.
There were more pallets than what you see here. Trust me, people came out of their buildings to watch. It was totally wobbly and insanely scary.

Oh course it wasn’t only us that sweat for this building,

we put our loved ones to work too.

Kola did a lot of supervising.

Of course it wasn’t all hard work. I miss our parties

Drinking wine on the rooftop.

Having friends over to play pool. Hell, I miss having friends.

I even miss the skaters.

It was definitely an experience. But I gotta tell ya, I’m so glad it’s over.

Sometimes I forget that I have a boat. This is easy to do because I never use it. Hell, to tell you the truth, I never wanted it. I got it through Brandon, my ex. The last time I got back together with him was probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life, along with that, I was conned into purchasing a boat in my name, another one of my biggest mistakes, because I’m the one with good credit. So, when we split, which was inevitable, he left the boat to me, along with the payments and said it was only fair since he had the truck. Yeah, like that’s the same. He has a truck that he uses everyday, I have a boat I never wanted and don’t know how to use. Whatever, I was just want this relationship to end and be as civil about it as possible. I’m pretty sure we both could agree on that. So I took the stupid boat. Since then it’s been used once by our friend in San Francisco, Dustin. He drove it around the lake with his family and broke it in. I think it’s past the 40 hour mark now. Yeppie. I inquired about how much it would be to ship the darn thing to Hawaii, but at $4000.00 I’d be better off riding it across the Pacific Ocean. My good friend Cammie offered to let us store it at her place since she had extra room. Thank God for good friends. I took her up on her offer and the boat has been there ever since. Anyhow, I got a text from her last week saying she was moving and the boat had to go. Fuck, what a bummer and a huge burden. Don’t get me wrong, I totally appreciate her letting me store the boat at her place free of charge for the past year, but I’m in Hawaii. I started doing what I do best and started to stress. I really thought we were going to have to fly back to California, rent a truck and tow it ourselves. Anyhow, it make the long story short, the boat is now in Texas at Ray’s dads house. Ray found an internet site where they bid to tow your boat for you. We got a super cheap deal, $750.00 and couldn’t pass on the offer. It was kind of a shock because I didn’t think we would be able to move it within a week, but we did and we didn’t even have to fly back to do it. Ray’s dad probably already started planing fishing trips so I know it’ll get some good use out of it.

Hello world! This is my first post on my personal blog. Right now is 12:09 a.m. Tuesday Night, well I guess Wednesday morning. If your wondering why I’m up it’s because I can’t sleep. The truth is I have horrible sleeping pattern. It’s like a roller coaster. Some nights I take ny quil just so I can get some shut eye but I find myself waking up feeling super tired with bags under my eyes. Anyhow, I figure I mine as well make use of my sporadic mind.

I saw my friend Cammie today. She’s here from California for her brothers wedding. It was really nice to see her. I’ve been thinking a lot about the people in my life. I like to think of my friends like clothes, I could care less about most of them and then some of are like a timeless dress. Cammie’s like a blouse that never goes out of style. I’m pretty lucky because I have a lot of good friends in my life and most of them have totally proved their friendship to me in some way or other. I hate to admit it but I’m high maintenance even as a friend. It just seems as though I’m the one who always needs a favor instead of one of them needing a favor from me. Cammie is taking care of our boat. This is huge because right now we have no where else to store it, since we live in Hawaii. Anyhow I miss a lot of them and it sucks because most of them live so far away.

Well it’s the beginning of the year and I figure that now is the best time to graduate from my hand written journals to an online journal. I’ve been recording my life since the 5th grade when my parents moved us to Atwater California. Even at a young age I knew my life was worth recording. There’s no way that I could ever give up writing in my journals but this online thing allows me to share my thoughts and life with my family and friends and to just vent. But I really think that Ray’s gonna be the only reader for awhile, I know everyone is so busy with their lives and Ray’s just my number one fan.

2007 was a good year, tough but still a really good year. I know one day we’re gonna look back at this era in our lives and know it was all worth it. But lets not relish in the past and instead focus on the present. Right now I live in Oahu, Hawaii with Ray my fiance. At first it was so weird to say fiance because I never said it before and now it’s weird to say fiance because he’s more than that to me. I feel like he’s already my husband and I his wife. We live with our friend Shane. He’s like a good pair of sandals that you wear with everything and now are perfectly molded to your feet. I’m not saying we step all over him, but more like I think he’s a good fit. I met Shane back in February of last year while Ray and I were on vacation out here and somehow we live with him now. I tell everyone he’s like a male version of me because we see eye to eye on damn near everything. It’s crazy to think we went from living in an 8000 square foot warehouse to sharing a cozy 450 square foot apartment. I’m guessing it’s about 450 square feet who knows it could be 475. Some might think three’s a crowd but it’s really not. Yeah, it could be a little overwhelming at times and I think all three of us have really compromise a lot but overall I’m astonished at how well we all live together. Now it’s just like we’re family. It’s really cute. Anyhow, it’s always been a dream of mine to live in Hawaii and now that I have I know why. The air here is clean, the beaches are clear, the water is pure, there’s a rainbow in the sky everyday; it’s just breathtaking here and even though I know it’s not practical to be here forever I will always consider Hawaii my home and come back to her. I also work. I don’t really want to say where, because I’m a little embarrassed or ashamed. The truth of the matter is I’m a server. I hate that I’m still doing what I was doing like 5 years ago. You see for the past 4 years or so I’ve been a massage therapist. Money was great but I just got burnt out on it. I don’t know if I will get back into it. I kinda feel like my sanity is more important than money but now I’m just in a quandary. To say I hate my job is an understatement. Oh, Kola, our dog lives with us too. I’ve had him since I was 18. He was a puppy back then.

As for my New Years Resolutions I have a few that I would like to share.

1. Run in a marathon. It doesn’t have to be a full marathon, any one will do.

2. Pay off the rest of my debt. Let’s just say it’s a lot.

3. Educate myself on anything money. I want to learn how and where to invest, start a savings, open up an IRA, etc.

4. Finish my painting. Ray and I took an art class and I started this painting. I’m no Ray when it comes to painting but I am proud of it and I want to finish it so I can hang it up one day.

5. Get a passport. I got a letter from the INS saying that I’m denied citizenship because I’m already a citizen. And they couldn’t tell me this info when applied like 10 years ago because . . . I have strong feelings of animosity towards the INS, seriously. Anyhow, now that I’m a citizen I need to get a passport so if I want to travel I can.

6. Start up an online journal. I guess I can just scratch this one off. Ray has turned me into an internet whore and I love it. I use to be one of those stubborn people that didn’t want to change with the times. E-mail? Why, I have a phone or better yet I’ll write a letter. I still think letter writing is more personal and sentimental but I now see the need for technology and internet. Sharing and giving knowledge is something great and I want to share my life with those who care to read about it.

7. Be more conscious about taking care of my mind and body. I know everyone’s resolution is to loose weight and although I wouldn’t mind loosing a few pounds I think if I just focus on taking care of myself through exercise, meditation, and trying to be more conscious about what I put into my body, everything will fall into place.

8. Keep in contact with those I love and let them know I love them. This is my family and friends I hold dear to my heart. You know who you are. I love you guys. Thank you so much for being there and loving me unconditionally.